Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Team Pictures

Coach Priore

You might not think coaches care much about team pictures, but they do. My college coach, Chuck Priore, was an eloquent man, and I remember him giving us a heartfelt pep talk the day before we took ours.

"If you're gonna be in this picture tomorrow, you better not fuckin quit."

And honestly, I don't blame him. I'd say the same thing if I were a coach. The team picture is the face of your brand. And it's usually on, like, the third day of practice. You don't want to pick up the photo at the end of the season and find someone next to you who went through 800 less practices than you did.

In football, how you look is important. Or at least that's what I had to tell people when I worked on Gillette.

It's certainly all our girlfriends care about. I saw Lindsey for the first time in ten days on Monday, and the first two things she said to me were "Hi!" and "You need a haircut, like now." I'm not sure about the order.

I was thinking about team pictures as I surveyed my fantasy league this morning after a brutal opening week loss. How did my league do in their team pictures? Horrible! Almost no one even bothered, instead opting for a generic Yahoo-provided helmet with a lightning bolt on it.

Seriously? You've got the whole internet to play with. Just pick something. There's a real void in creativity and effort in my league, and I hate it.
But some people care. This week I play Ramsey, who chose this picture, one of my personal favorites, as a reminder of the day in Palm Beach he told us he "doesn't do sunscreen".

And then there's mine, in honor of Coach Priore: My QB1 drunk at a college party.

God bless him.

"Roethlisberger, you better not fuckin quit."

CONFLICTS OF THE WEEK

LSU/Mississippi State vs. Millionaire Matchmaker (Thurs, 8:00 ET)
As I hogged the TV to watch both Monday Night Football games, a visibly annoyed Lindsey asked me if there were other games this week she needed to be aware of. I quickly flagged this one.EDGE: LSU/Mississippi State

Boise/Toledo vs. Maria's Birthday Party (Fri, 8:00 ET)
Ah, where it all began. Fortunately she planned this party smarter, knowing Saturday night is the OU-FSU Game of the Century (Week).EDGE: Maria's birthday party

Oklahoma State/Tulsa vs. Going out after the OU game (Sat, 11:00)
What I love about Oklahoma is that they would delay the start of this game just so everyone in the state can watch OU. Now THAT'S having your priorities straight.EDGE: Going out after OU game, hopefully to a place with TVs.